Posted by pseudoname on July 9, 2006, at 13:00:27
In reply to Re: Ritalin and recess » pseudoname, posted by ed_uk on July 9, 2006, at 12:26:54
> Hi PN
Hi to you!
> At high school we had 60 minutes lunch but no other breaks.
Do you call it "high school" in the UK? Roughly the age range of 14-18?
> I do think some children may derive a lot of benefit from stimulants, at least in the short term. I certainly wouldn't criticise anyone for deciding to give their child a stimulant.
I agree; I wouldn't criticize anyone simply because a stimulant was involved. A child in my circle had a birth mother whose drug abuse probably affected him in utero. His adoptive parents put him on stimulants, on which he performs adequately in school. OFF the stimulants, he suffers painfully in ordinary situations from indecision and inattention and so on. He is by far the smallest child in his class; I believe slow growth is a known effect of stimulants in children. Sadly, it's probably the best trade-off they can make for him right now.
On the other hand, stimulants are clearly overprescribed for kids in the U.S. I think their lives are overstructured these days and Ritalin is used to squeeze them into boxes, but I don't want to sound like a grouchy old man.
poster:pseudoname
thread:664625
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20060709/msgs/665455.html